Vettel out paces Mercedes duo to win in Malaysia

The Winner and Star of the race

There were a number of contenders for star of the race in Malaysia including fine drives by rookie Max Verstappen and Ferrari's Kimi Raikkonen, but I don't think you can look beyond a fantastic and emotional winning drive by the other Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel.

After Australia it was all doom and gloom. Mercedes could win every race people said, they will be even more dominant than 2014. It's surely too early to say that Ferrari are about to become championship challengers, but they're close and there will be more wins this year for the Scuderia.

Today we saw Mercedes beaten on pace for the first time since 2013. Vettel didn't make a great start and had to aggressively hold Rosberg off who had started third. There was an early safety car due to Marcus Ericsson spinning off with a way too ambitious overtake on Nico Hulkenberg's Force India at turn one which resulted in the majority of the field pitting including both Mercedes.

Crucially Vettel didn't pit and nor did Hulkenberg, Romain Grosjean, Carlos Sainz or Sergio Perez. Hamilton and Rosberg were sixth and ninth when the field was released again. Once Hamilton had worked his way into second place he was 10 seconds behind the Ferrari and wasn't catching him.

Vettel pitted but caught and passed both Rosberg and Hamilton to retake the lead as the Mercedes dived for his second stop. The Silver Arrow driver would surely come back at him. This was a car that looked like it had almost a second advantage at the first race.

It wasn't to be though, Vettel controlled the gap and could respond to Hamilton's attacks. Today Ferrari had genuine pace, whereas Mercedes lost grip from their rubber far quicker, Vettel was able to look after the tyres. This was a case of the red car being able to handle the high temperatures better and having a rejuvenated Vettel in control and back where he feels he belongs, at the front.

The Battles

Plenty of great racing action away from the lead battle today. A safety car almost always mixes up the pack and the action abounded throughout the race.

The Toro Rosso rookie pair continued to show their inexperience means nothing with Max Verstappen in particular highlighting his potential with a number of aggressive moves that never went over the line but trod it carefully. He ended up seventh having fallen back at the start whereas Sainz rose up from 15th on the grid to finish eighth. They raced hard with the Red Bull's eventually making a gap.

In truth Red Bull were out classed by their junior team today by quite a margin as they finished ninth and tenth. Twice Daniel Ricciardo was asked to let Daniil Kvyat ahead as the Australian suffered from brake problems. The main problem though was that the team just doesn't have the pace despite qualifying fourth and fifth, but the fight Kvyat took to Ricciardo was impressive. 

He'd been a bit anonymous in Australia and after a clash with Hulkenberg lost him time it looked to be another disappointing race for the Russian but he fought back and caught Ricciardo who isn't maintaining his smile so well this season.

I enjoyed the McLaren-Honda's of Fernando Alonso and Jenson Button toughing it out in a few battles. Their power unit is way down on power, but once the problems are sorted they should be challenging for points at least sooner rather than later.

They've made progress and having Alonso back in the car would have been a boost. Both battled it out with the Force India's and kept Felipe Nasr's Sauber behind (who had a quiet race), and Button noted that before he retired he still had a Red Bull in sight. This is progress, and I expect them to be closer still in China.

Williams team mates Felipe Massa and Valtteri Bottas enjoyed a great tussle at the end of the race with Bottas managing to get one over on his rival with a fantastic round the outside pass to finish fifth with Massa sixth. But they'll be disappointed, they were meant to be fighting for best of the rest with Ferrari, instead Ferrari have decided they'd rather fight at the front. Williams look to have been left behind.

Force India seemed to be involved in a lot of scraps with both drivers given ten second penalties, Hulkenberg unfairly for his clash with Kvyat and Perez for not giving enough room to Grosjean in the Lotus who was unlucky not to get some points out of this race. 

Things of note

When you have the mindset that you're going to win, when things go wrong frustration comes easily. Lewis Hamilton questioned tyre choices and sounded very irritable on team radio today. It was an odd race for Mercedes. They definitely haven't just suddenly lost their advantage and they will surely come back stronger but when they were for once challenged, they couldn't respond. One thing I am certain of, they'll be working extra hard for China to make sure this doesn't happen again. A dominant Mercedes win in round 3? It would be a safe bet.

However, Ferrari not only won, but Kimi Raikkonen finished fourth after suffering a puncture that dropped him to the rear of the field. He was well clear of the Williams pair behind too, underlining just how good Ferrari were today, it'll take another few races to be sure, but they could be at the front for the long haul.

As mentioned McLaren have made genuine progress. They may still have only out-qualified Manor but they were much close to those in front and were able to fight, although I'm sure Alonso must be casting a wistful eye over to the guys in red. 

Red Bull could be in the doldrums for a while, their relationship with Renault is frosty at best, and with both not exactly working in harmony it could take some time for Ricciardo and Kvyat to work their way back to the front.

Manor couldn't get Will Stevens to the grid but they did finish with Roberto Merhi which is a brilliant result after all their problems. The car does look rather short of sponsors though in that they have none.

I'd like to end on one of the best things of the weekend which was Lewis Hamilton's pole position lap. It was a lap of brilliance, going over a second quicker than his team mate at the time when the track was at its wettest. Vettel did bring the gap down to under a tenth of a second but at that time in those conditions, Lewis was untouchable.   

The title chase

So what does this result mean for the championship fight? It could be exactly what we need. If one thing is worth noting it's that Rosberg has been rather tamed by Hamilton. Lewis seems to have had the edge in these first two rounds, and Rosberg almost looks like he's accepting of it. 

It's far too early to say that Ferrari are now the equal of Mercedes, but they are clearly at the very least the second best team out there, both Vettel and Raikkonen are more than capable of racking up the podiums this year, but will enough wins come their way to make it a fight for the ultimate prize? We will see, but the delight on Vettel's face this weekend will make him even hungrier for more.

If there is to be a proper fight for the title this year, then at the moment I think it's more likely to be Vettel than Rosberg. Is Nico can't strike back in China then he's very much in danger of playing the support.

Result

1. Sebastian Vettel - Ferrari
2. Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes
3. Nico Rosberg - Mercedes
4. Kimi Raikkonen - Ferrari
5. Valtteri Bottas - Williams-Mercedes
6. Felipe Massa - Williams-Mercedes
7. Max Verstappen - Toro Rosso-Renault
8. Carlos Sainz - Toro Rosso-Renault
9. Daniil Kvyat - Red Bull-Renault
10. Daniel Ricciardo - Red Bull-Renault
11. Romain Grosjean - Lotus-Mercedes
12. Felipe Nasr - Sauber-Ferrari
13. Sergio Perez - Force India-Mercedes
14. Nico Hulkenberg - Force India-Mercedes
15. Roberto Merhi - Manor Marussia-Ferrari
R. Pastor Maldonado - Lotus-Mercedes
R. Jenson Button - McLaren-Honda
R. Fernando Alonso - McLaren-Honda
R. Marcus Ericsson - Sauber-Ferrari
DNS. Will Stevens - Manor Marussia-Ferrari

all photo's taken from autosport.com